Cairns September Newsletter
Hi,
Welcome to the ATA (Cairns) newsletter for September. Two really great events happened this month. At the usual meeting at ENVIROMART, we had a talk with Manfred Muir (a design engineer) about the Queensland Governments’ initiative on greening local households. Manfred took advantage of the scheme and for $50 had a power monitor fitted, along with 15 CF lights and a AAA rated Shower Head. Being the inquisitive type that he is, he ran some experiments on his power meter and came up with some very interesting data that he shared with us. Overall, the scheme is good value for money, but the figures produced by the power monitor should not be taken as fact, as many assumptions are made about household electrical usage. It does however give good incentive to reduce power consumption around the home with that really annoying “you’re using too much power” alarm.
The second event was the invitation ATA received to attend the Carnival on Collins. It was a great day, with many people browsing through our display and asking some really interesting questions. I had my standard toys and models on display and the new books attracted a lot of interest, although few were brave enough to shell out too many dollars. Still, we did OK and there are many wiser and more conscious people in Cairns because of the ATA.
The Sustainable house day is coming up on Sunday 13th September between 10:00am and 4:00pm. There are 5 houses this year, including our good friends (and staunch ATA members) from Julatten, Brian and Estrella Lambert. So, if you would like to be a part of this ever growing Australian wide event, go to the website at www.sustainablehouseday.com find out the addresses and go along to help support this very worthwhile initiative. Besides, its FREE.
Now, for the not-so-good news. It is with a heavy heart, that we have to say farewell to our venue at ENVIROMART. Due to circumstances, Alan and Di are no longer able to extend their hospitality of a Saturday afternoon. I would like to thank them sincerely for their support over the time and know that they will continue to support the ATA in any way they can as we will surely support them. To this end, I urge you all to drop in from time to time and say “Hi”, I know they would appreciate it.
And now, for the really bad news. Due to the loss of our meeting venue and the continued lack of numbers at our meetings, I am unable to continue to hold regular monthly meetings of the Cairns ATA. If, in future, there is enough support, I would be only too happy to restart the get togethers in whatever form the group would like. In the meantime, I will continue to fly the ATA flag at the local fetes and market days and will post the venues on the ATA website. They should be about once a month. I extend an open invitation for any members to come along and have a go at the stall. It is a lot of fun and really, you don’t know what you are missing. I will also be spending more time with the Tropical Green Building Network and the Cairns Permaculture Group. These two groups share common goals with the ATA and I feel that any contributions we are able to make will not only strengthen them, but also advance the ideals of the ATA in the Cairns region.
The Tropical Green Building Network meets every first Wednesday of the month at the Cairns City Library, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, for further information go to https://secure.greenbuild.com.au/forum/ . For details on the Cairns Permaculture Group, go to their website at www.cairnspermaculture.com
Finally, I would like to thank Trevor Hardwick for his dedicated support from the beginning. He turned up to just about every meeting, was at every event we held and loaned us his video equipment without hesitation whenever we needed it. Trevor, thank you so much. Also, a big thank you to Brian Lambert, who although he could not make every meeting, came all the way from Julatten whenever he could. Thanks for the effort. There are also a couple of others that deserve to be recognised. Although Ian and Patrick had to leave us earlier in the year, they too were staunch supporters. I thank you all and hope to see you at the various venues in the near future. With any luck, we may be able to restart the regular get togethers sooner than later, so put your thinking caps on.
Yours in ATA
Daryl Douglass
